Sound engine woes (CSM)

Stats

• Raised by: Dierdra Vaal
• Submission Date: 02 august 2009
• Issue ID: tbd

Summary

Sound, if properly used, can greatly enhance a video game. It can give feedback about user actions, or improve the immersion. Sadly, sound is heavily underused in Eve. There is very little audio feedback and the ingame sounds do not greatly add to the immersion. Many pilots turn the sounds off completely because of this.

However, those that do have their sounds turned on experience a variety of issues with this, ranging from stuttering/popping sounds to volume inconsistencies ingame. While Eve has unfortunately never had great sound, these problems seem to have increased dramatically since the introduction of Apocrypha and the new sound engine.

Some problems seem to indicate special problems with the Creative X-Fi soundcards, however I have not been able to comfirm this (it is a job for the bughunters).

Solution

It would seem that sound is not a priority for CCP, as it has always been a relatively minor part of the game. We hope that with the recent appointment of the new sound engineer will improve matters.

If the issues highlighted in this proposal have been dealt with (interally only, perhaps) or are already under investigation/development, it would be nice to have more information about this. A devblog about sound was mentioned but so far has not been released. A devblog about the current (and past) sound issues, the intended roadmap for fixing them and improving sound in eve would be greatly appreciated.

If these issues are not yet under development we request that the sound defects being reported in the threads (see relevant threads) are researched by the bughunters, and that fixing/improving the sound engine receives higher priority with CCP.

Additionally, on top of fixing the problems we ask CCP to consider appointing a sound designer who works with the sound engineering team (is it just 1 poor programmer?) to make the sounds in eve functional and truly immersive, rather than a feature a lot of players turn off.

Pros

• Less sounds bugs
• More immersive world
• Better interface playback

Cons

• None

Relevant Forum Threads

• http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1122856 (main thread)
• Links copied from main thread:
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1018419
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1018462
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1018592
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1021736
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1026247
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1027947
  • http://www.eveonline.com/iNgameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1028938
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1031417
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1032438
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1036023
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1038784
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1039905
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1040636
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1041165
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1042135
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1042833
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1042939
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1076614
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1078792
  • http://www.eveonline.com/iNgameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1079293
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1080725
  • http://www.eveonline.com/iNgameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1083539
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1084117
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1121390
  • http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1123655

Votes

• Dierdra Vaal - yes
• Vuk Lau - yes
• mazzilliu - yes
• Zastrow J - yes
• Erik Finnegan - yes
• Avalloc - yes
• Omber Zombie - yes
• Larkonis Trassler - yes
• Meissa Anunthiel - yes